1. I'm reading that, in Illinois, the SOL for written contracts is 10 years and 5 years for oral and credit card agreements? Can anyone confirm this? If it's 5 years for CC's, then I'm pretty close on most of these. Should I not mess with them (other than the active court cases) since they're seamingly close to the SOL?

Questions on CROs:

1. Should I use a CRO (Sky Blue, Lexington Law, etc) to get me jump started? Or, would that alert or piss-off the CAs and stir up a hornets nest right before the SOL? 2-3 of these I could handle but 11 seems like overload for me.

Questions on settlements:

1. I have two cases pending in court. I've continued both for a while and know these law offices won't go away. What is the best strategy to negotiate a settlement for COs that are currently suing you? It's way to late to do a DV right? So do I simply make an offer for 50% and request a PFD? I've been sued and settled before with Captial One (Blitt & Gaines) and they wouldn't negotiate at all.

I know this is alot but I'm just trying to line it all out so it makes sense. Thanks to anyone that can offer good advice.

Re: Questions about SOL, PFD, CRO and settlements

1. There are no judgements at the moment. I have one case set for trial in March. Portfolio Recovery / Citi Finacial. TU says date of last payment / DOFD was 06/16/08. Item will be removed 06/15. This is a Charge Account

2. Need to know the best way to settle with the above. Should I PIF? PFD? or Settle and ask for PIF/PFD?

3. All of the other COs have similar dates.

4. I also have two other CAP ONE accounts I paid off/settled in 2010 through a CA. They say >Account Paid in Full; was a charge off< Anything I should do about that one?

Re: Questions about SOL, PFD, CRO and settlements

If they have already filed civil action, they are seriously pursuing recovery of the entire debt.

My main goal would be to settle before trial date, thus avoiding the addition of a judgment to your credit file, and the fact that, once they have secured a judgment, if it is not satisfied within a reasonable period, they can go back to court and get an order for specific terms of satisfaction, such as garnishment of pay.

My opinion is that this is not the time to push for additional concessions on their part, of which you are apparently seeking two... accepting less than the full amount, and credit report deletion. Payment in full would terminate the legal proceedings. A payment plan might work, provided they are willing to accept.

You can, of course, attempt to negotiate with their attorney, but I would be prepared to do a full PIF if they balk and if you dont have a good case for trial that might award judgment to you.

Re: Questions about SOL, PFD, CRO and settlements

@RobertEG - I agree with your course of action. I will definiately work something out before it goes to trial. I realize I don't have much leverage at this point so I will just try to make a settlement offer and ask them to report the debt as PIF and see what they say.

That said, at this point do I still need to do a DV? Does anyone have a link for the detailed steps of reaching a settlement or doing a PIF so I'm assured that I get what I pay for?

Re: Questions about SOL, PFD, CRO and settlements

In my opinion, a DV at this point would most likely be a waste of paper and ink.

Assuming the debt collector sent prior dunning notice, any DV becomes untimely after expiration of the 30-day period set by the dunning notice.

So if the period has expired, the DV would not invoke any cease collection bar.

Additionally, a DV is not retroactive to prior collection activities, so would not make their filing of civil action a prohibited collection activity.

Finally, they could simply send an immediate response verifying the debt to have been investigated and considered valid, which should be no problem in view of the fact that they have initiated civil action, evidencing that they feel they have sufficient basis to proceed. At best, if a timely DV remains at time of trial, the judge would most likely simply require that validation be provided prior to continuing the proceeding.

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